MS Never Let Disaproval Of Interface CHanges Stopt'em Before
Microsoft has never let the dislike of changes they've made to the interface of Office stop them before. Many hated and I mean thoroughly hated (and still do to this day) the Ribbon interface offered in 2007 and pushed onto users (whether they wanted it or not) in 2010 and still Microsoft bravely pushed onward ignoring the complaints of their users and looked forward to even newer changes like Metro.
For Microsoft the key is change. You gotta have visible change and lots of it if you are going to get people to upgrade. Yes some will appreciate behind the scenes changes that make the program work better but its the visual changes that given the sales & marketing people the ammo they need to push users to upgrade. Most decision makers at companys arent going to approve the upgrade to Office X if it looks just like the version before so you have to hcnage the way it looks so as to pget the sales. The engineers do try to not make the program less friendly to existing users but thats not always avoidable as was the case with the Ribbon.
The Ribbon offered a major (visual) overhaul of Office and more importantly it gave Microsoft something to more easily copyright. Every Windows compatible application uses menus & toolbars but if any want to use the new Ribbon then they gotta pay Microsoft!
In all seriousness I dont know if the Ribbon is really copyrighted or not or even if you have to pay royalties to Microsoft to use the Ribbon in your own app but I do know its hated by as many users as those who like it and despite the proof of this Microsoft gave those users the virtual middle finger and moved on from there never looking back to the mistake of the forced Ribbon.
What Proof you may ask? There are a number of add-ons/plug-ins and 3rd party utilities for altering the Office interface so as to make it look and function (as best as possible) as it used to before the Ribbon tied everyone down. These things came to market only because there was a demand and enough of one to generate numerous competing products.
